Say What?
CAPITOL HILL -- The U.S. Senate confirmed Priscilla Owen to a federal appeals court after four years of waiting.
The vote of 56-43 came a day after the Senate broke a Democratic filibuster as part of a deal brokered by moderates.
.............
Two Democrats voted for Owen: Sens. Robert Byrd and Mary Landrieu. Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a Republican, voted against her.
Thought for the day
This was contained in an e-mail I received today from a preacher:
"It seems that the loudest voices in churches these days have the least to say."
He is a wise man.
Don't Rule Farrell Out Just Yet
The final list of prospective candidates for Marshall University president has been announced.But does it mean that one of these guys will be Marshall president?
Something is wrong with this list. It doesn't contain the name of Michaal Farrell, the interim Marshall president.
But, you may say, Farrell took himself out of the running for the permanent job when he answered the call to be interim president.
Yes, but he has changed him mind. So?
Well, word on the street is that Farrell has a big fan in Gov. Joe Manchin and vice versa. When Manchin spoke at the Marshall commencement, he recognied Farrell with "President Farrell - That has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?"
My sources say that Farrell's was AT LEAST supposed to be a finalist. And Marshall's governing board really shouldn't cross the governor.
Farrell was there when Manchin wanted to fulfill his campaign promise to schedule football games between Marshall and WVU. Farrell was a facillitator. Manchin owes him.
Whoever the Marshall board picks must be approved by the Higher Education Policy Commission, which doesn't want to cross Manchin either. Barring the unforseen, he's going to be governor for eight years.
So don't rule Farrell out just yet. If he eventually becomes Marshall's president, we may see the power and insistence of our governor in action.
PostScript:
OK. Rule him out.
When Fred Friar calls me stupid.....
... in one of his e-mails, which is about three days a week, at least he signs them and I generally know what he's talking about.
But when
this column was published in the Charleston Daily Mail, I received two e-mails from someone with the e-mail address NowKillGoliath@aol.com.
One of them said:
Why are you espousing the oppression of the people of this state?
You are standing in direct opposition to the vast majority and more importantly, to the Creator. Regardless of your obvious lack of depth and goodwill, we would expect you to at least consider what you are doing to yourself and your family. Friend, you are painting yourself into a corner.
We urge you to renounce your crooked behavior and realign yourself.
If the evil system which you have supported were to collapse tomorrow, I certainly would not want to be standing in your shoes.
Best wishes!
The other:
And by the way, it's III, not II, in regard to the Star Wars pontification. You and the Daily Mail seem to have an aversion to the truth or you are just completely inept. Either way, you have no legitimate right to address any group of civilized people.....short of those who are incarcerated. Grow up!
Did I miss something in this column? If so, can anyone tell me what I missed?
A Question
In 2004, West Virginia was the only state where Armed Forces recruiters met their quotas.
Why?
Is it beause we have the most patriotic young people in America?
Is it because West Virginia younguns are desparate to find a way out of the cycle of poverty that's endemic in this state?
If it is the latter, is it in the best interests of the federal government to improve their lot?
Just asking.
I'm Either a Genius or I'm Ugleeeeeee
The email response I got from my column about the Marshall-WVU game was the most I have ever received about a column in the Charleston Daily Mail.
For example:
Mr. Peyton:
Lighten up.
You probably think you are being a faithful member of the fourth estate
by taking your cynical role in today's article, however, the only fans
you'll win are those Mountaineer aficionados who were against playing
the Herd in the first place in this series. While you speak in a way
that indicates you have no affinity for athletics, you certainly are on
your way to becoming Chuck Landon's counter balance. Perhaps that will
help add to your retirement fund that the Herald-Dispatch isn't paying
into anymore.
By the way, you're so quick to point out everyone elses most miniscule
issues, why not at least elaborate on what "company rule" you violated?
That leaves quite a bit to the imagination, Dave, as there are rules
that can be "nit-picky", or those that should be followed in the work
place or home place.
As for the football series, how is it going to hurt the state fiscally?
You speak as if this is the Governor's solution to the state's
financial troubles, and he has spent all of his time on the matter.
Give me a break, do you really think your readers are that delusional
to believe any of that? The games WILL benefit the state, and both
universities, financially, but are by no means a permanent solution.
No one said it was.
So how about taking a deep breath, letting go of all that hate and
animosity toward your former employer and town, and not use a positive
event - which are few and far between in this state - to help
facilitate your axe grinding.
Have a nice day.
Or this one:
Before I begin my assault on your poorly thought out article, I want you to understand that I am a graduate of Marshall University and WVU Law School and a serious Marshall University football fan. First, I believe you should have recognized that Marshall football brings in the vast majority of the money into the coffers of Marshall's athletic department. In fact, Marshall football pays for itself at Marshall and contributes a large portion of the remaining part of the athletic department. Your opinion that Marshall football is some sort of drain on the taxpayers or the university is quite frankly unfounded and not in any way truthful.
You then make the statement that WVU should be proud that is athletic department is self supporting. While the athletic department is now self sustaining (almost entirely due to conference affiliation), West Virginia University is a public institution, which is funded in large part by taxpayers. In fact, if you were to go back and compare the amount of government money received by each university as allocated per student, you would find that Marshall University has historically received less money per student than West Virginia University. Marshall is doing more with less tax payer money overall, and as such, my conclusion is that the illusion of a self supporting athletic department is simply a play on words made up by West Virginia University officials.
I love Marshall football and many others also love the sport, and it is important to me and thousands of others. The announcement of the football serious was better attended than any legislation that was signed by the governor this year, and as such, my conclusion is that it was important to a lot of other people.
You clearly do not like football, which is fine. You should watch or do something else. However, the fact that you were put off by Marshall getting a stadium after playing in dilapidated Fairfield stadium is something that calls into question your objectivity. Bluntly, I believe it is clear that you hate Marshall football and any success it may achieve is a burr in you saddle. If so, should you really be writing editorial articles about Marshall football as you are far from removed or objective. Further, can you be at all objective to Marshall when you spew such venom at Herald Dispatch for firing you.
By the way, you were completely wrong about the stadium as it was necessary for growth and has more than paid for itself.
Or this one:
Dave:
We’ve conversed before electronically back on the old CompuServe service what seems like ages ago. On that day it was about your presence on the old WVPB state affairs show, the name of which I can’t remember. Your column today makes me write again. Once again, never fear, it’s in praise.
You have brilliantly told is as it is. How long must West Virginians realize that games do not make a state a better place to live? And to have the Governor participate in this is simply ludicrous. The economic reality is that two games in the state on a given day means more revenue to the state via taxes and to businesses via customers—at both Huntington and Morgantown. It will only be at Morgantown or Huntington for awhile. Who’s talking about that? And what do you want to bet that after the 2007 game (or before), Marshall will be lobbying the Legislature for money to expand their stadium? Or lobbying to get an indoor practice field or something like that because they need to make this game more competitive? It’s only a matter of time.
I attended neither school, being a graduate of WV Tech, but I’ve always been a Mountaineer fan. Call it tradition passed on for generations. I didn’t favor the game for several reasons, one of which the endangerment of WVU’s athletic programs to remain self-supporting (take away that 7th home game and the budget get really tight) and thus staying out of state coffers. The second was what we’ve seen—the dividing of West Virginians between two camps. Makes no sense to me.
I find it interesting that you discovered this truth and wrote a column about it while the clueless sports departments at both Charleston newspapers, the Herald Dispatch and others are on a high about it. It really makes you wonder.
Anyway, BRAVO!
Or this one:
Dave:
HOW DARE YOU refer to Rod Blackstone, Chief Whatever for Mayor Danny Jones and former Press Secretary for Governor Cecil H. Underwood as "that guy throwing toastat the ballgames." This has become a quite hallowed position for Rod, and for youto denigrate it--no doubt out of pure jealousy--is beyond the pale. :)
Here's what I really want to know: WHEN WILL WEST VIRGINIA FINALLY GO
BELLY UP in one way or another? I waited on it for five years--can the powers
that be really keep propping it up with just enough tax increases or gambling
monies to avoid the big disaster? I would think that, at some point, the
exponential growth of all of our indebted funds would finally be the iceberg
that breaks through the hull of our Titanic.
It amazes me that a state like ours, with little economic dynamism, increasing
debts, and economic drains (like that gambling you like, Dave--I can come over
and play CARDS with you if you like) continues to hang on for dear life.
I keep coming back to reading about the origins of the French Revolution, how
the king, against the advice of his Swiss finance minister, Jacques Necker, kept
spending, spending, spending money lavishly on himself. Finally, the back broke,
and it was disastrous for all.
We may be spending money MOSTLY on better things now than the king's luxuries,
but without more of an economy coming on board in the next few years, it's
inevitable, don't you think? I don't think people are really thinking about it, because
if they did, it would scare the state pensioners and state Medicaid recipients to death.
So, after all these years, how close do you think we are to Bankruptcy Midnight?
And what do you think of that theory that pops up now and then that says,
"Maybe going bankrupt, bad as it is, would be in WV's longterm best interests,
because at least the politicians would be out of the way while the federal
bankruptcy judge forced payment on the most important debts."
I don't see the United States government giving us any kind of significant bailout
like they gave Chrysler or NYC. We aren't that important to them, are we, and
it might serve as a bad precedent for other states to try.
Gee, this is depressing. Order me a couple of those WVU/Marshall tickets for '06!
Well, you get the drift. About half of the e-mails support my position and the other half think that I am dead wrong and a pitiful human being.
I found a disturbing pattern in the emails. It appears that many WVU athletic supporters agreed with me and most Marshall athletic supporters disagreed.
Tribalism is alive and well in West Virginia. These two encampments hate each other and they don't realize it's this tribalism that's keeping the state down while keeping the sports writers in business.
I did not include any names in the emails I posted because many of them came from lawyers and bankers who add that disclaimer that says it's not to be published under penalty of death or some such nonsense. Mostly these were the ones who want me to keep my opinions to myself.
A Republican's Take on Social Security
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are...a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954
Another Birdbrain Environmentalist
Janet Fout is an environmentalist. She's a tree hugger and a bird-lover. For the second year in a row, a tufted titmouse has used her to harvest hair for lining its nest. This picuture was taken a few weeks ago in April at Janet's home.
"It's a blessing," Janet said.
Well, Janet is a blessing and we need a million like her in West Virginia. She doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk.
I'm not sure a tufted titmouse would want Don Blankenship's hair, even if it were offered. For many many reasons.
What's Wrong WIth His Hair?
So I watched
Decision Makers TWICE today on the local West Virginia Media Holdings station. It was Don Blankenship of Massey Energy (based in Richmond, Va., may I add) versus Vivian Stockman of The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Carey, always the optimist, said he brought them together to see if there was any common ground between the two on mountaintop removal mining. There isn't!I could have told him that.
On the 8:30 a.m. statewide news show that followed the 8 a.m. broadcast of "Decision Makers," Blankenship was given the opportunity to get in the last word. He basically called Stockman a liar. Stockman, meanwhile, said in an e-mail to me that she was not given the same opportunity to have a final say following the interview. Wonder why? In any event, she indicated she would pitch a bitch to Carey this week.
So does anyone now if Blankenship wears a toupe? Or maybe he's a v victim of a hair transplant gone wrong? Or maybe his locks are a victim of a coal slurry accident. Surely he doesn't mean for his hair to look like that.
Stockman remarked how serene Blankenship seemed to be. She wondered why. And so did I.
Not only wasn't there much light coming from the program. There wasn't even much heat.
In a future show, the ever-hopeful Carey will invite God and Satan to see if there is any common ground on which to build a glorious future.
If you're a gardener - heck, even if you aren't one - treat yourself and read "The Battle of Bearwallow Hollow"
here.
Darlena is a natural writer and this is proof.
What the World Needs Now is More Sock Monkeys
The State Journal reports on
a new program at Tamarack where federal work training funds are diverted through the Tamarack Foundation to train West Virginians in the mountaim crafts that Tamarack sells, mostly to tourists on their way to or from Florida.
I like the idea. It makes better use of the money than some of those federal work programs on which millions have been squandered..
What bothers me is a couple of paragraphs deep in the story. Sally Bushong, the executive director of the foundation, says that the goal is to train artisans who can produce the most popular sellers at Tamarack.
The product each student is being taught to create is one that is in high demand at Tamarack, she said.
Some examples include glass sun-catchers, metal hooks and homemade sock monkeys.
So it's clear that not only among West Virginians but among tourists who visit our fair state there's no accounting for taste.
Sock monkeys? The late great columnist L.T. Anderson, who despised Tamarack, would have had much to say about how West Virginia is apparently becoming the Sock Monkey State Thanks to Tamarack.
Raging Red has her Devil Duck. I'll be performing with
The 1937 Flood at Tamarack on Father's Day. Maybe I'll buy a sock monkey and make him the mascot for this blog.
Softballs are better than no balls, I suppose
Knowing that at least one employee of West Virginia Media Holdings occasionally reads this blog, I find it appropriate to comment about "
Decision Makers," the Sunday interview show on the television stations owned by WVMH.
I watch it every Sunday, hoping to be enlightened. Bray Carey, CEO of WVMH, is the interviewer and people he percieves to be West Virginia movers and shakers are the interviewees.
There's noother show like it on state television that I know of, certainly not in Huntington or Charleston. It gives folks the opportunity to state their beliefs and political positions because Carey asks them the questions they want to be asked. But, I suppose, if he asked the tough questions, they wouldn't agree to be on the show.
Next Sunday, for example, we are told that Coal King Don Blankenship will be on the program and he'll be up against an environmentalist. Blankenship isn't gonig to be on a program where he's asked the tough questions. so at least we who are affected by the decisions Blankenship makes about coal and the state environment get a chance to see him and hear his sometimes creepy philosophy.
There's only one thing I wish for: I wish Carey would offer full disclosure and tell us when WVMH investors appear on the show as interviewees. But even if he doesn't agree to that, it's still a somewhat valuable show, as is the 9 a.m. show on Saturday mornings when we get an hour of stateide news. The Kidz News that follows? Well, I sometimes watch that too but that Mr. Wizard dude is creepier than Don Blankenship.
